Posted on 04/05/2026 5:44:24 AM PDT by devane617
Near-Earth asteroid Apophis is a potentially hazardous asteroid that will safely pass close to Earth on April 13, 2029. It will come about 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) from our planet’s surface — closer than the distance of many satellites in geosynchronous orbit (about 22,236 miles, or 36,000 kilometers, in altitude).
(Excerpt) Read more at science.nasa.gov ...
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The fact that may pass close enough to easily observe is exciting. Hope it’s at least nighttime here…
Thanks for posting!
I will guess this will become big news in the coming year. It should be easily visible at that size.
Anything can happen between now and 2029. If that asteroid encounters something we don’t know about it could easily change the orbit enough for a direct hit. I’m not saying it’s going to happen but that it could happen.
Asteroid 2024 YR4, a 60-meter-wide space rock, has a roughly 4% chance of striking the Moon on December 22, 2032. We might even have a Moon base up and running by then!
Other “news” sites have helpful artists renditions of what would happen if Apophis hits Earth. LOL. And Neil deGrasse Tyson is on every show that will have him explaining that there is a much greater chance of impact the next time it passes.
20,000 miles is a hair’s breadth, cosmologically speaking.
That far out, we should be able to deflect or disperse* it many months in advance. Granted that an impact (if well away from the base!) would provide some great seismological data.
*The latter especially if it is basically a pile of gravel and not a “rock”.
No kidding!!
Does anyone know the timing? Maybe night-time over North America? That’d be cool to watch...
bttt
Experts say
I saw that movie - /s - and this smells. It's smelled since I first heard such blather years ago.
I don't believe it will 'safely pass'.
Sure it will...
The gummint says so...
Relax...
Thank you, Sir Issac Newton
April 13th will be a Friday in 2029. Not that that should be a cause for worry.
we should try to intercept and pulverize, but I understand that it is going really too fast.
but surely we could use a nuke pumped laser to make it outgas in such a way that it is not a threat on the next passage.
The next time that asteroid passes, the earth has to be in the same location in its orbit around the sun for it to be a threat.
It doesn’t look like there is anything to worry about from the upcoming Friday the 13th passage. When will the next earth fly-by occur?
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